


A Selfless Moment

by jujubiest



Category: The Blacklist (TV)
Genre: Ficlet, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-08
Updated: 2014-09-08
Packaged: 2018-02-16 16:23:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2276484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jujubiest/pseuds/jujubiest





	A Selfless Moment

She asks if he's ever had a selfless moment. And of course, the answer is no.

Even before. Before his entire life went, quite literally, up in flames. Before he lost whatever faith he'd had in the world, in humanity, in goodness. Everyone young and innocent thinks they're capable of selflessness, so he's sure he thought so too. When he was young, and innocent. But he's neither of those things now.

And since...nothing since that night has been selfless. It's been survival. The illusion of selfless behavior is a luxury, and one he hasn't the currency to afford. His life has been not choosing how to live, but what he can live _with_. He's made hard decisions, done terrible things. There is blood on his hands, gallons of it, layers upon layers, more blood than could ever be washed clean. He doesn't regret a single drop.

At the end of the day, it comes down to consequences. Cause and effect. You do something, it leads to something. You make a different choice, something different will follow. You choose not to act, that has its own repercussions. Everything action and inaction carries a consequence. Most people spend their entire lives trying to escape that fact, but he accepted it a long time ago. And for the last twenty years, his life has been about choosing the consequences he can live with, preserving that which he can't live without.

No, Raymond Reddington has never had a selfless moment. Because he knows what most refuse to admit: there's really no such thing.


End file.
